I just got a lovely package today… My birthday present from my dear wife was back ordered till recently, but I must say it was well worth the wait. See, I just got me some Beyerdynamic DT 880 headphones. Read here for an amazing review of them. So far, I’ve had to be at work, so I’ve only been able to use them on the crappy output on our cheap-o computers… But even then… these things are amazing! And so comfortable. Assuming I don’t melt when I try them out with my home system, I’ll give more details on them later.

I’ve been playing World of Warcraft quite a bit lately, having gotten into the stress test beta going on this week. So far, it is just frickin amazing! I can’t wait for the final game, where we have a large group playing together. Playing the beta has some ups and downs though… I love the game, but now that I’m at a pretty good level, I don’t look forward to having to start all over again. Then, I’m going to have to wait until the game actually comes out before playing again… Shambry has been more than kind though, putting up with my constant playing over the weekend. She’s the best!

An odd thing happened Monday, I was running over to my Mom’s to help setup some sound equipment, and when I came back the people in our apartment complex were out having a gathering. Ok, that wasn’t so odd as they all know each other quite well and do that pretty often. But, they invited us to join them, and the odd thing is we went! Even though World of Warcraft was calling to me… we went. While there, I had something re-distinguished to me. Shambry and I aren’t normal. We really just didn’t fit in there, and spent most of the time sitting there and nodding from time to time… We don’t have any kids, we’re not both going to school, I don’t really want to play the squirt gun games with the other guys… They were all really nice people, but they were just different from us in so many ways it was hard to follow the same conversation paths and such. Lucky for us, we have a group of friends who are all more or less in the same boat as we are, which works out very nicely. Unlucky for us, most of them are planning on leaving Utah as soon as the chance arises, and we’re not… Best make use of the time we have eh?

So, I spent this weekend camping. Those who know me realize this isn’t something that can often be heard of me… In fact, recently Penny Arcade had a couple comics that defined my expectations of said trip, though instead of the Doom 3 release, I got to miss the open beta for World of Warcraft… But, much to my surprise, I actually had a good time! Details as follows:

Friday, after work, we head up to Idaho (good 4ish hour drive, starting ’round 9 PM). Once we get there, we mingle with the family for a bit, then head for the great sagging bed. You know, the kind that has no support in the middle, and almost touches the floor when you lie down. When I was single, that was fine… but having two people in one of those creates some odd anomaly where both parties are constantly on top of the other… I have no idea how it works, probably related to how our parents had to walk uphill both too and from school… So, after a scant couple hours of sleep, we stagger to the next car for the trip to the campground (Red Fish Lake for those who really care). That was quite the trip, somewhat smushed into the back of said car with my dear wife, and a stack of luggage/pillows. After several hours of that we finally get to the camping area. I must admit, I was a bit impressed. Our sister, who works at the lodge there, managed to snag us a nice camping spot with room for all our tents and other gear. Setting up was cake, mostly because everyone there was Shambry’s family, and I think they’re all too scared of me to actually ask me to help…
From there, we did the proper tourist things, including looking around at the amazingly beautiful lake, and spending WAY too much money in gift shops. Then came the one thing that had been tempting me to actually go from the start… Kayaks. As said sister was an employee of the lodge, we got to use all the lake equipment free of charge! So off we go for a little paddle around the lake. It was impressive to say the least. Most of the time we hung around the crystal clear waters of the beach, occasionally slipping out to less populated areas. We got to see a giant tree that had fallen in the water years ago, and collected random pieces of driftwood and cool rocks. Most of all, we avoided all the bugs at the campground. I don’t like bugs… That night was a rather calm evening of hot dogs, and soup… Then the sleeping started…
It seems there was a bit of a competition that night, for who could snore the loudest. It also seems I must have won… due to the dirty looks I was getting the next day. The 2nd night, I even got threats at night to prop my head over to shut me up. Its good to be loved, really.
Enter the morning! Getting up early camping isn’t as hard as I feared it would be. I’m betting it has a lot to do with other people in the tent being loud while waking… and that tent walls don’t block out sun as well as our house walls. It wasn’t too bad though, as far as mornings go. We walked to the lake and took pictures of the mists rising off of it. Then I avoided eating breakfast. We passed the time till lunch feeding the local wild life, particularly a friendly squirrel named Ralph. I would have to assume Ralph was used to people feeding him, as he had no problems coming right up to us, even as far as jumping on our hands to get his food. We spent quite a while playing with him, taking several pictures/vids. From there, we got a couple motor boats, and took a tour all around the lake, stopping at one point for a nice lunch. It was quite entertaining, even got to see a couple more sunken trees! After that, more kayaking… Did I mention I don’t like bugs? No bugs on the water, that’s for sure. This time we were far more adventurous, going out to the middle of the lake, trying to catch the waves from passing boats wakes, etc. That night was a pretty eventless relaxing night. Guess there really isn’t much you can do after dark in the middle of the woods… well, nothing you can do with a bunch of family members around at least. Then after breaking camp, we made for home… All of the driving in one day this time. So, not nearly as bad as I was expecting. I’d even be willing to do it again! Well, that is assuming I get free rentals of lake equipment again that is.

Oh, and for those of you who were worried, though I missed the World of Warcraft signup, a friend of mine was able to find a spare key for me. All was not lost! And, should you be interested, all the pictures from the trip are here